Collapsible thermoplastic pouches are often used to store pumpable products. The pouches are typically housed in a corrugated paperboard or other rigid or substantially rigid carton to aid in the transporting, handling and dispensing of the product. Such systems are commonly referred to as “bag-in-box” (BiB) packaging systems, and include a carton, a flexible pouch, a spout joined to the pouch, a spout closure, and a pumpable product disposed in the pouch.
A number of BiB applications require pouches with a combination of high barrier and toughness during processing, shipping, and handling.
For bag-in-box applications, multi-ply laminates having metallized polyester substrates are sometimes employed as at least a portion of the pouch material, sometimes with a polyethylene liner. Also used are barrier films having a coextruded multilayer construction.
However, the current systems for dispensing pumpable products often suffer from one of two problems.
A shortcoming with metallized pouch materials is the occurrence of pin-holes in the pouch due to flex cracking. This phenomenon, sometimes caused by vibrational stresses imparted during shipping and distribution of filled pouches, can compromise the oxygen barrier properties of the pouch, and in turn adversely affect the shelf life of the contents of the pouch.
Coextruded multilayer barrier films used in pouch construction can sometimes lack sufficient toughness in terms of burst strength.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a bag-in-box system for use in dispensing pumpable products that satisfactorily addresses the above-noted deficiencies in prior art systems.